Augmented reality applications relate to a form of interaction between users and technology which superimposes information on a person's field of view, e.g. via a head mounted display, thereby enhancing that person's perceived reality. In order to be able to perform such a virtual enhancement of a person's visual field, so-called tracking processes are used. These can employ both hardware and software. For example, optical, inertial, acoustic and/or magnetic systems are used in tracking. These systems must be supplied with data in order to determine the user's position. This data can be, for example, three-dimensional models of a viewed object, images of the viewed object from different positions, identified salient points, lines or color regions or specially applied coded markers. All the information necessary for tracking is fed into the tracking process at its commencement.
In the industrial, medical and consumer fields, the tracking environments for augmented reality applications are many and varied, which means that the process of creating tracking configurations is complex and costly. This stands in the way of any widespread use of augmented reality applications in the fields mentioned.
Creating tracking configurations for a specified environment is complex because with known tracking processes the entire environment is used or rather analyzed.
Even slight differences between two similar but not completely coinciding environments often cause the particular tracking process used to fail, as e.g. contradictory data concerning the positions of salient points, lines or color regions is present, so that no consistency with the real scene can be achieved.
The creation/authoring of tracking configurations is based on generating parameter sets and data derived e.g. from reduced CAD models of the environment in question. For example, salient points, edges and/or color regions are extracted and a subset thereof is selected so that the tracking process used can work efficiently. Then the selection made must be tested in the real environment and where necessary adapted thereto. The creator/author must also select the salient points, edges and/or color regions such that they are evenly distributed in the real environment. This is the only way of ensuring the stability of the particular tracking process. These steps require good knowledge of the behavior of the particular tracking process on the part of the author and involve much time and effort for the author. High-quality superimposition of the augmentation over the real environment is therefore dependent to a large extent on the know-how and accuracy of the author.
Already known from DE 10 2005 046 762.8 are a system and a method for displaying augmented reality information. Here objects are captured as image information of a detail of an environment by means of a camera. The objects captured are identified and representations of the captured objects are reconstructed in virtual three-dimensional space on the basis of associated tracking information stored in the system. In addition, local coordinates of the objects are calculated and the position of the user and his/her viewing angle onto the relevant object is determined. The local coordinates are also assigned user information which is then inserted in a positionally correct manner into the user's field of view. The tracking information mentioned is read out contactlessly from at least one mobile data memory by means of a read/write device. The mobile data memory is mounted on the particular object to be captured.